My company booked me for a night at the Sao Paulo Sheraton last week. This is the only approved hotel in the city under our travel policy. I arrived fairly late in the evening, after a delayed flight due to the rain storms. I was told that the twin room allocated to me was a renovated room, but it certainly did not look renovated to me: definitely not one of their Design rooms, more of a refreshed room that looked like it contained the somewhat dinged, old furniture and fixtures. As I usually do on check-in, before unpacking I went to have a look at the bed and bathroom to check cleanliness. The bathroom was ok but when I flipped back the covers on the bed I spotted a short, curly hair and - worse - a couple of tiny red bugs. Now, I don't know what a bed bug looks like but I have my doubts that this is what these critters were - maybe tiny spiders or mites of some kind. A bug is a bug, however, and there certainly was no way I would get a night's sleep in that room. I headed downstairs to ask for another room, which they were able to provide. I dragged my suitcase to room #2, which smelled musty, had a few burn marks in the carpet - and another hair in the bed. Back downstairs and this time, the check-in clerk came upstairs to show me another room; this one, she said, was a Club Room. Again, the same tired furniture and somewhat run down carpet. Like the other two rooms, it had ancient-looking mattresses, mattress covers that didn't completely cover the mattress - and another hair! That was it. I told the employee that I couldn't stay in the hotel and we went back downstairs and I took a cab around the WTC and checked myself into the Hilton, which had very nice new mattresses, thank you very much.

I realize that there likely are insects in most hotel rooms (not to mention my house), but I can handle invisible vermin. Once I meet them face to face, however, I'm out of there. I am not going to stay in that hotel again until I'm confident that they've gotten rid of the old mattresses.

I'd like to add that, although I was very disappointed with the physical condition of the rooms, the staff who I dealt with in respect of this issue were exceptionally professional, courteous and respectful.